Fpl Floats Plan For Storm Fee

Supplement To Bills Could Last 11 Years

Florida Power & Light Co. customers could be paying for the utility's past two years of hurricane damage for up to 11 years under a proposal the company plans to submit next month to state regulators.

FPL's request to the state Public Service Commission could translate to ratepayers having to pay $1.60 per 1,000 kilowatt-hours for at least the next decade to cover the cost of the two storm seasons as well as rebuilding FPL's storm reserve fund.

The monthly fee would replace a current hurricane surcharge of $1.68 per 1,000 kilowatt-hours that FPL customers are set to pay through January 2008.

FPL officials said the company spent between $800 million to $900 million this past hurricane season. That comes after FPL spent nearly $1 billion to restore power during the 2004 hurricane season.

Under FPL's plan, the company will ask the state Public Service Commission for permission to issue roughly $1.6 billion in bonds to cover hurricane restoration costs and go into the reserve fund. The new customer charge would secure the bonds' revenue stream. The state Legislature passed a law this year giving the Public Service Commission authority to approve FPL issuing such bonds.

"We have been struggling with the whole cost recovery issue because we know it is very unpopular," said FPL President Armando Olivera.

FPL customers already will be seeing an increase in their electric bills come Jan. 1. That's when average residential bills will jump by 19 percent or more a month to cover increased fuel costs.

Consumer advocate Mike Twomey said Wednesday that spreading hurricane restoration costs over a larger number of years would place less of a burden on lower-income customers. But FPL will need to be pressed on what were deemed hurricane-related costs, he said.

Jon Burstein can be reached at jburstein@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4491.